Woo-hoo! I'm going to be presenting at the International Expressive Therapy Association Conference in San Francisco in February 2019! The theme of this year's conference is "Rise UP! The Evolution and Revolution of Expressive Arts." For more info, visit https://www.ieata.org/2019-ieata-conference

Description:What would it be like to be a therapist for an entire culture? How do we perceive of and respond to the sea of culture in which we swim? What creative processes support root-level cultural re-patterning? You are invited to journey through three inquiries: diagnosis, change models, and the self-culture interface. Each segment includes a brief introduction, individual art-making, small group sharing, and multimodal group collage. Our goal is to energize our roles as active players in a vast social network in a validating and inclusive environment. Come play with metaphors in this hivemind exploration of cultural change!

Learning Objectives:* Experiment with various frames through which to view of our social dilemmas and mechanisms for cultural change* Increase awareness about the relationship between individual and collective activism* Practice collaborative, creative problem-solving in an inclusive and eclectic visioning circle

Abstract:Since the United States presidential election of 2016, social media and news outlets have been flooded with one crisis after another, overwhelming the senses. Numerous grassroots social movements have sprung up to work toward social and environmental justice in the form of marches, demonstrations, and nonviolent resistance. This year's IEATA conference theme is an opportunity for change-seekers to wield the expressive therapies to inform and strengthen these movements. This workshop, “Culture Therapy: Creative Collaboration for Envisioning Diagnosis and Change” is intended to provide an experience of creative encounter with colossal questions of how to engage with the cultural problems in which we find ourselves immersed.

According to Brewer (2016), culture design is a growing field that conceives of social and environmental problems as profoundly linked through underlying systemic currents. Brewer recommends an experimental approach to effect cultural evolution, comparable with improvisational theatre and rapid prototyping. In this era of broad access to world events, humans may develop an increasing need to interact with the whole network of relationships that we sense through large scale trends. Having a context for this work can innovate new cultural structures that drive social change.

This workshop will move through three segments: diagnosis, change models, and the self-culture interface. In the first segment, we will experiment with assessing our cultural ills, including frequently referenced DSM diagnoses, such as addiction, narcissism, or post-traumatic stress. Other frames may be drawn from nature, such as invasive species, climate change, or loss of habitat. Proposals for renaming our species is yet another lens, such as homo imaginens, homo insectus, homo economicus, homo irrationalus, and homo chrysalis. As we consolidate the grief, rage, fear, and hope we may feel about social and environmental crises, the task of our first group collage is to view and en-story our complex and layered predicament.

In the second segment, participants will generate metaphors for social change, which may include images related to resistance, fighting, healing, evolution, conservation, survival, community-building, ecological integration, or a cycle of collapse and regeneration. While some of these metaphoric actions may appear contradictory on the surface, participants will be encouraged to envision the multiple change models as complimentary and dynamic, as individuals can move between various groups and methods. By expanding our repertoire of metaphors for social change, we increase our capacity to build coalitions and recognize allies in our work.

In the final segment, we will reflect on the the interface between our individual and collective mythologies. Can one person make a difference? Does organizing locally affect the larger world? How can individuals navigate intersectional identities and multiple affiliations? Metaphors may include themes of ripples, replication or viral effects, water droplets that move in waves, and other microcosm-macrocosm relationships. While acknowledging experiences of apathy and powerlessness, we will also invite hopeful images about leadership and agency. By exploring the relationship between our individual and collective activism, we can more consciously negotiate resources that contribute to a mass sea change.

After introducing each segment with a brief lecture and visual presentation, participants will be encouraged to explore perceptions of these topics through individual art-making, sharing and witnessing in partners and small groups, and improvised performance with the whole group, including movement, poetry, music, and visual imagery. Discrepancies between our personal stories and cultural narratives will be integrated by invoking the larger stories that include both. By validating each others' understanding, vision, and response to our cultural imbalances, we can energize our roles as active players in a vast social network.